ROSE CITY — The man exposed as The Black Knight, Real Life Superhero, has been arrested.
Joshua Stone was booked into the Multnomah County jail Tuesday night. Rose City Police arrested Stone for stalking, which is a misdemeanor crime.
According to prosecutors, the Multnomah County District Attorney’s office decided not to file charges at this time. They can reconsider later.
Stone has been released from jail.
“There was not enough evidence to proceed with the incidents of stalking that were reported to us,” explained Matthew Hall, a deputy district attorney in Multnomah County.
Stone is also trying to change his name. He filed court papers in Yamhill County on Tuesday, requesting that a judge allow him to legally change his name from Joshua Stone to Maxwell P. Gigglebottoms.
A hearing has been scheduled for February 15 to consider the change.
Stone claimed he was a Real Life Superhero; a member of the team, The Alternates. The Alternates released Stone after the arrest and disbanded the team.
The U.S. Department of Defense, in coordination with the Rose City Costumed Crazies Division, are investigating the matter.
ROSE CITY- A naked man stopped a robbery in Downtown Rose City on Friday Night.
An officer first spotted the orange-haired man, without his clothes, running toward a robbery in progress at Pioneer Courthouse Square around 6 pm. The individual stopped a would be the robber, Jason Grumblebum, as he attempted to steal money from a couple at gunpoint.
After the naked man beat down Mr. Grumblebum, he ran off down the street, singing a Laura Branigan song. The officer tried using a stun gun to subdue the naked man but the stun gun malfunction.
The robber, Mr. Grumble, was taken into custody for the attempted robbery.
This is not the first time a totally naked man was found stopping criminal activity in Rose City. The police have cited the man with disorderly conduct and interfering with a peace officer but have yet to discover the identity of the nude crime stopper.
ROSE CITY- Rose City Police are seeking a man and woman suspected of robbing several pizza eateries in the Old Town District.
The latest robbery took place at the Old Town Pizza on NW Davis. around 2:35 p.m. where the couple entered and made off with dozens of pizzas.
The male suspect is described as a man in his early 20s, between 5 feet, 7 inches and to 8 inches, with a medium build, short brown hair, sunglasses, and in a gray steamer suit with a cape. The woman suspect is described as a woman in his early 20s, between 5 feet, 4 inches to 6 inches, with a thin build, black hair, sunglasses, in a black swat vest, and black combat pants and boots.
Anyone with information about these series of robberies is asked to contact Det. William Rail at 503-867-5309, will.rail@rose-city.net; or to contact the Rose City office of the FBI at 503-555-6792.
The Costumed Crazies Police Division (CCPD) is asking for the public’s help in identifying a suspect who robbed Petersons on 9th and Morrison in Downtown Rose City.
The suspect appears to be a male in his 30s to 40s, wearing a dark blue T-shirt with a yellow skull, purple pants, wearing a yellow skull, purple pants, wearing a yellow skull mask, and an orange hood. The suspect is carrying a duffle bag filled with honey.
Anyone with information about this suspect is asked to contact Port of Rose City Police Detective. William Rail at 503-867-5309, police@rose-city.net.
ROSE CITY, USA. – A bold heist was caught on camera at a local jewelry store and police hope the security video will lead them to the crook.
The theft happened just before 2 p.m. Monday at Margulis Jewelers on Broadway in Rose City. The manager had left for coffee, leaving a female clerk alone in the store, and that’s when a bold masked robber went to work. A man walked into the jewellery store and asked the clerk to see a necklace in a window display at the front of the store.
“He said he loved one of the necklaces that were in the window and asked to see it,” said Joan Durham, the clerk. “He says ‘can you show it to me – I just want to see how much the damage is going to be.’ “
But when Durham went to get the necklace, the masked man jumped over the counter towards the back of the store where a visible safe was open and grabbed a bag with $1,500,000 worth of diamonds in it. He then sprinted out of the store before Durham could do anything. The whole thing happened in just seconds and the guy was gone.
“My heart was pounding for quite some time because I was so angry and I had a lot of adrenaline rushing through me,” Durham said. “I wanted to go get him.”
“This person clearly knew what they were doing and what they were looking for,” said Det. William Rail with the Rose City Police Department.
The suspect is described as a white male between 40 and 50 years old, who is about 6 feet tall and weighs around 260 pounds. He was wearing a purple shirt, orange gloves, blue khaki jeans and yellow skull mask with orange hood. If you recognize him or have other information that could help in the case, call the police.
ROSE CITY – Investigators believe arson was the caused a fire at a Woman’s Empowerment Bookstore Friday night.
According to police, officers responded to a burglar alarm at the bookstore located on Hawthorne by 37th AVE around 10:38 p.m.
About eight minutes later, the fire alarm sounded. Firefighters responded and fought the fire at the business.
Through the course of their investigation, it was determined that someone slid an explosive device through the mail slot.
No one was in the building at the time and there are no reported injuries.
So far, no arrests have been made.
A note left by the bookstore claims a group called “The Bridge City Beta Males” were responsible for the arson. At this time investigators have not released any details of the fire.
Rose City – Another explosion took place Friday night on Powell Blvd. The Spritely Bean, a coffee shop, was the victim of arson committed by the self-proclaimed Bridge City Beta Males.
A thunderous explosions shook the area, sending large black smoke plumes and debris billowing into the air.
Witnesses report hearing a deafening boom, feeling buildings shake, lights go out. Some thought it was an earthquake.
“I did time in Iraq. This was just like a bomb going off,” said one witness.
“You could almost feel the noise, that’s how loud it was,” said another witness in the area. “It’s hard to talk about. Glass shattered, everything exploded. … It was indescribable.”
Large smoke plumes were visible from blocks away. Local residents were warned to avoid the area if possible.
The explosion, just after 10 p.m., were in a row of businesses that also houses Steakadelphia, and a scientologist print shop, which is a total loss. The owner of Steakadelphia told the Rose Cityian that all his employees are accounted for.
No fatalities have been reported.
Crews are asking residents to stay away from the area. Power and gas have been cut in the area.
Police are asking for tips on the whereabouts of the Beta Males. They have yet to find members of this rogue band of arsonists.
ROSE CITY — A man was arrested for allegedly stealing plants and other items from the garden center at a Vantucky Grocery Store over the past few weeks.
Tom Aladdin, 41, was arrested after detectives searched his home on NE 125th Avenue and found 157 stolen plants, a garden cart, a display rack and Brie cheese.
The grocery store prevention staff began investigating Aladdin and gave information to Vantucky Police.
The value of the stolen property is estimated at $6,000.
Aladdin in charged with Possession of Stolen Property II, Theft with Intent to Resell, Trafficking Stolen Property 1, and Possession of a Controlled Substance- Brie cheese.
Icarus yelled that he wanted to “stop Amazonian rule” after authorities arrested him in connection with 2 arson cases in Rose City. This former hero sidekick has turned to the dark side.
Icarus (whose real name is withheld), must serve 5 years at the State Hospital for the Insane.
Prosecutors had implored Rose City Superior Court to sentence Icarus to more than 30 years in prison based on his conviction for setting the fires, noting that he had shown no remorse.
“After he was taken to jail, he said, ‘Feminism is evil’ ” Deputy Dist. Attorney, James Falcon said. Besides the property damage, Falcon said, Icarus scarred many people’s lives for years to come. None of the blazes resulted in injuries.
Icarus sat in a wheelchair motionless, looking straight ahead, and showed no reaction as the judge handed down the sentence. Before sentencing, his attorney Steven Schrödinger told the judge that Icarus had turned down a deal offered by prosecutors for a 1-year prison term.
He began setting the fires after networking with individuals online calling themselves “The Bridge City Beta Males.” The fires were set during the night, putting residents on edge. Residents turned to social media to get updates on the fires, with some peering out windows into the dark, keeping porch and garage lights on, and fixating on sirens in the distance.
Police initially were stumped. Finally, a police officer spotted Icarus tied up in front of a local burlesque bar in the Hawthorne District. In a tent on the roof of the establishment was found fire starter sticks and explosives, police said. Icarus was arrested in the early morning hours. Police later retrieved videos of Icarus doing push-ups inside the burning buildings.
ROSE CITY, U.S.A. (KOIN) — A man was arrested for DUII after his neighbor called the police over a stolen box of cereal.
The
County Sheriff’s Office said a man reported that his neighbor, Robin Robbins,
drove by and stole a box of cereal that was on top of his car.
Robbins,
25, then reportedly got back into his car and drove to his nearby house.
The
neighbor who called said he followed Robbins to get his cereal back. Robbins had
poured himself a bowl and was also drinking a beer, the sheriff’s office said.
The
neighbor declined Robbins’ offer to share a bowl of cereal.
When
deputies arrived, Robbins was arrested for DUII with a blood alcohol content
nearly twice the legal limit.
Whitney Crabs thought Onsite Rose City was a safe bet for hair for her wedding this summer. She had been a bridesmaid at a wedding that the hair and makeup company had worked on last November, and the owner, Dean Ambrose, had done a great job on her friend’s hair.
But in the months leading up to her wedding, which happened earlier this month, the situation started to unravel. After Crabs paid a 50% deposit for services for her and her bridesmaids, communication with Ambrose became sparse before stopping altogether.
When she finally did have a trial styling session with an artist the company sent, the woman didn’t seem to have any idea how to do a wedding updo, Crabs said.
“She was just really, really bad at what she does, kind of horrendous,” Crabs said. “I started to panic.”
Crabs tried to get assigned to a different makeup artist and stylist, but it took several days. In the meantime, her wedding was fast approaching.
Finally, she decided to cancel her contract, with two weeks to go before her wedding. First, the company ignored her. And then, they tried to get her to sign a “cancellation contract,” which included a non-disclosure agreement and demanded full payment for the service.
Crabs isn’t the only bride who says she was a victim of Onsite Rose City this wedding season. A complaint with the State Attorney General’s Office, a listing on the Better Business Bureau’s website and reviews on websites all tell similar stories.
They go like this — the bride-to-be sets up an appointment with a well-reviewed hair and makeup company they find online. They pay a deposit of hundreds of dollars and in some cases, have a trial run with the artists.
And then, for some, communications cease and they are left scrambling to find someone else at the last minute.
Others only discover an issue on the day of their wedding, when the company doesn’t show up at all.
Tyler Breeze only realized the problem on the morning of her wedding. She had had her trial with Ambrose and had paid both the deposit and her final payment two days before, for a total of about $1,100.
On the morning of Aug. 24, she waited in a hotel room with her bridesmaids and mother. The night before, she had texted Ambrose with the room number and Ambrose had answered, saying she would see her in the morning.
“7 rolls around, nothing,” Breeze said. “7:15 rolls around, nothing. I texted her. She doesn’t respond. I end up calling her and leaving her a voicemail and no response.”
By 7:40 a.m. Breeze and her party — seven women total — began to scramble. Everyone called their hairstylists and split up to go get hair and makeup done. They were able to pull it off.
“It was very stressful but you know what it all worked out,” Breeze said. “It was really cool to see all my bridesmaids all step up. I joked with them ‘You guys really earned your spot.’”
Breeze said she discovered Onsite Rose City after searching online.
“Everything on their website looked pretty legit,” she said, adding that the reviews looked great.
But stylist Canola Broth believes that those “great reviews” were written by Ambrose.
Broth worked for Onsite Rose City for just over a month this summer. She said she was never paid and now believes that most of the company’s employees, as well as those positive reviews, were alter egos of Ambrose.
In her time with the company, Broth said, she was never paid. She did several weddings before she and her fellow artists realized something was wrong.
Broth said she found Onsite Rose City through Indeed. She was looking for some extra work to supplement her income as a hairstylist and makeup artist.
“It looked legit,” Broth said. “I did my research.”
But the first bride she worked with mentioned that the customer service through Onsite Rose City was “very poor.”
“I felt a little weird about it,” Broth said.
Though Broth never was paid, she said, some of the other artists were paid earlier in the year. The deal was artists would get 40% of what they made at a wedding and Ambrose got 60%. Broth said this wasn’t a very good deal for the artists, but since they believed there was a whole business to be run, she and others agreed to it.
The night before her final wedding, Broth said, another artist texted her “saying it was a scam.”
The artists began telling their clients what was going on.
“I’ve been talking to a lot of brides since this happened,” Broth said.
She ended up doing one final wedding in Dundee the next day. The bride paid her directly, she said.
Broth said she and the other artists then tried to contact Ambrose.
“At first she was answering a little bit,” Broth said, but then she stopped.
Then, she disappeared.
“She posted pictures that she was in Mexico,” Broth said.
Someone who appears to be Ambrose posted a picture from Cozumel, Mexico, on the Facebook on Aug. 18, before both Breeze and Crabs’ weddings.
“Who knows how many brides she swindled?” she said. “Who knows how many weddings were ruined?”
The company is listed on the Internet. However, there is no record of a business license for the company. Onsite Rose City is headquartered in Vantucky.
But this issue might not be limited to the Rose City area.
According to the Better Business Bureau, Dean Ambrose is the alias of Melissa May Yoke who also is known as Melissa Violet Yoke. The Better Business Bureau says that Yoke is the owner of Face to Face Makeup Artistry & Hair and Face to Face with Violet in Minnesota.
The Internet reviews of Face to Face show a similar pattern — artists who don’t know what they are doing, terrible communications and wedding day no-shows.
In April of 2017, Yoke was sentenced to two years probation in Minnesota for forging a restraining order against an unhappy customer who posted a negative review online.
According to The Mankato Free Press, Yolk sent the faked restraining order, with a forged signature of a county judge, to the Better Business Bureau.
While police say they don’t have specific complaints against Onsite Rose City, Yoke or Ambrose, the State Attorney General’s Office has received one complaint.
The Better Business Bureau has a notice posted online calling out a “pattern of complaint” against the company.
“Consumers allege they contracted with the company to provide hair and make-up services for their weddings, prepaid a large deposit, but never received the services,” it reads. “The company failed to show up to the appointment and is unresponsive to the customer. These complaints are currently pending as BBB is waiting for the company’s response.”
Ultimately, Crabs found another company to do her hair for her wedding. She refused to sign the cancellation contract and after the negative reviews of the company started rolling in, her credit card company refunded her the money for the deposit.
According the Internet and the Better Business Bureau, Onsite Rose City is now closed.
Neither Onsite Rose City, Ambrose or Yoke responded to request for comment.
By Beetle Bailey Jr. | The Rose Cityian/Rose City Live
The only tree in Rose City’s smallest park is gone.
A tiny stump and a patch of dirt are all that remained Friday morning at Mill Ends Park in downtown Rose City. City park officials said they have no idea who cut the lone tree in the park, a concrete planter measuring two feet in diameter.
“It’s just not a nice thing to do,” said Mark Ross, a Rose City Parks and Recreation spokesperson. “It’s not the end of the world. We’ll all continue to enjoy the park and the whimsical nature of it, but when something like this happens it makes you think, ‘Why would someone do that?’”
Parks bureau officials don’t plan to file a police report, he said.
The park sits on a median along Southwest Naito Parkway and is recognized by the Guinness Book of World Records as the world’s smallest park. It became a city park in the 1970s, but the space was established in the 1940s by journalist Dick Fagan.
Ross said the park has its own watering and maintenance schedule, which including rotating in new saplings every few months. He said parks bureau staff plan to assess the damage Friday morning and determining a new tree suitable for planting in the park.
It’ll cost around $5 to replace the sapling and the parks bureau has received at least one offer from someone willing to donate a small tree, Ross said.
A small pine tree planted at Mill Ends Park was stolen in 2013. A Douglas Fir sapling was planted in its place, but the stolen tree turned up sometime later lying next to its replacement.
EMERALD CITY — A local ‘superhero’ known in the past for
serving justice and helping the police combat crime in downtown Emerald City is
now in super trouble with the law.
Pepper Gold faces multiple drug charges after he allegedly
sold the illegal spice, Tonka Bean, to another person, according to a King
County District Clerk filing.
An undercover officer with the Emerald City Police
Department scheduled a meeting with the popular cape crusader, known in the
past for patrolling Emerald City’s Capitol Hill neighborhood every week and
stopping fights, feeding the homeless and ensuring justice is served.
Gold typically wore a costume underneath his street clothes
in case he encountered crime on the streets, he carried a “pepper gun” and
enlisted the support of a sidekick in order to fight the surge of crime in the
area.
This real-life superhero’s particular undoing, though,
happened to be a penchant for selling banned spices, according to court
documents released by the Emerald City Police Department.
A witness told detectives they could not believe Gold had
not been caught yet by authorities, paving the way for an undercover sting
operation designed to catch the superhero that turned to a life of a crime.
The operation revealed Gold sold Dipteryx Odorata or “The
Tonka Bean” to an undercover U.S. Forest Service detective Nov. 21 at a
Starbucks at 999 3rd Avenue.
Prior to the encounter, the undercover detective sent Gold $300
on Venmo, according to the report.
Investigators said the famed superhero accepted an
additional $200 in person and agreed to sell more “Beans” to the
detective at a later date.
Police said Gold handed the agent a brown paper bag, which
had several black bean powder substances in several dark-colored bags. Each
substance tested positive for Tonka Beans and weighed about 7.1 grams in total.
Less than a week later after the exchange, the undercover
officer reached out to Gold for another shipment of “Beans.” Despite
many text message exchanges, it took more than a month for detectives to
arrange another spice deal with Gold, according to the district court filing.
Police said Gold and his unknown girlfriend agreed to meet
an agent Jan. 9 at the Silver Cloud Hotel for a party.
The pair got outside of their vehicle just before 11 p.m.
and were seen carrying a shiny gold backpack and a blue plastic tackle box into
the hotel lobby, authorities said.
Investigators found seven separate bundles of Sassafras Oil weighing
about four grams, a scale with suspected residue, several blue narcotic package
and Ackee Fruit weighing approximately 31.7 grams. Detectives uncovered two
small plastic bundles with suspected Sassafras Oil residue inside the brown
leather bag.
The caped crusader was released from jail Jan. 11 and is
scheduled for arraignment Feb. 3, according to online records.
Prior to his run in with the law, Pepper Gold said he became
a superhero after his friend was assaulted outside a bar, leaving him with
permanent facial damage, and his son was injured by broken glass during a car
burglary.
He claimed civilians could have rushed to their help to but
stood idly by. From there Gold donned a tophat to ensure his loved ones would
not be hurt again.
“Have you ever seen something that you thought was
wrong or not fair?” Gold said back in 2013. “That you wanted to
change? And then you just thought about it for days or weeks? I don’t stand by
and watch things happen that are wrong. When I see it I fix it. Does that make
me crazy?”
Gold was a part of the The Superhero Squad of Superheroes movement, which involved a group of heroes patrolling the streets of Emerald City.
Dressing up as a gold Satanman and fighting crime is not
illegal but Emerald City police said they do not encourage vigilante justice.
ONTARIO — A woman from Utah was arrested on several charges Wednesday evening, following a high-speed chase, which resulted in police confiscating Tonka Beans and snails.
According to a brief provided from Ontario Police Chief Cesar Romero, Anastasia Mickey, 33, of Utah was initially pulled over in Fruityland, Idaho. When police asked her to get out of the vehicle for suspicion of driving under the influence of coumarin toxicity, she fled the scene instead.
Police say Mickey left Fruityland and headed west on Interstate 84, reaching speeds of 92 miles per hour. She turned off at exit 374 to Ontario, slowing down in the city, where Ontario Police Department took over the pursuit.
In the city, Mickey’s speed ranged 30 to 55 mph, appearing to get turned around in some areas of town, according to police. Police were able to successfully deploy spikes, but that didn’t stop her.
Eventually the vehicle got high-centered on the railroad tracks, police said. At this point, police contacted Union Pacific to stop trains.
Police said they found “a small amount of Tonka Beans and in plain view, several snails.”
Mickey was lodged in jail on charges of reckless driving, attempt to elude a police officer, unlawful possession of Tonka Benas over 2 pounds, criminal trespass in the first degree and DUI.
Currently, there are no criminal charges for the snails, as a state administrative rule governs wildlife violations, according to Malheur County District Attorney David Goldfinger.
‘Folks involved deserve a little bit of kudos’
Rose City Police said, “transporting snails into our state from Utah is illegal” under The Rose City Administrative Rules established in 1983.
Police Chief Romero said fish and wildlife folks were notified, but that he was not sure where the snails were being housed for the time being.
‘Lots of snails we don’t want to come to our state’
The confiscated snails were European brown garden snails, according to Josh Vlad, entomologist with the Rose City Department of Agriculture. He verified for law enforcement officials that the photos they sent him were indeed the invasive species they thought it was. He also helped them with providing the regulations pertained to the snails, adding that officers “didn’t want to seize these snails without knowing the rules” and that they were justified in doing so.
Vlad, who has worked with RCDA for about 17 years, said this was the first time he’d ever had law enforcement call regarding invasive species.
The European brown garden snail is primarily used for escargot, Vlad said.
However, he said, the primary reason people keep them is because they are “big and voracious eaters of plants and kind of just about anything.” He said they are well-established in California and are a garden and crop pest, particularly for orange orchards, where they climb up trees and eat holes in oranges.
But it’s not just European browns that are unwanted.
“There are lots of snails we don’t want to come to Rose City,” he said.
This includes regional snails, such as the dime-size eastern Heath snail, which have a similar climbing behavior on agricultural crops, where they “glue” themselves to the top of the stalks before harvest, and become a contaminant.
“Smashed up snails mixed up with seed isn’t desirable,” Vlad said.
Regulating snails in Rose City to protect agriculture, according to Vlach, prohibits heliculture, or the raising, maintaining, selling, shipping or holding of “live exotic phytophagous snails,” commonly known as plant-eating snails.
‘The white list’
Rose City has an approved invertebrate list, Vlad says, which is the opposite of what most states do. Typically states have a list of prohibited species. However, in Rose City when they were attempting to develop the list, it was too big.
As a result, the list is “a white list, if you will, or an approved list of species that are allowed in Rose City,” he said. People can seek permission to bring in anything not on that list.
Not approved are critters, such as ants, pets, snails, crayfish, tarantulas and scorpions, he said.
Vlad credited the officers with correctly identifying the snails.
“It’s pretty easy,” he said. “There’s nothing in this region that looks like that.”
How in the world did Rose City-area kids fill their free time before the internet and PlayStation?
A lot of them went cruising along Southwest Broadway.
In fact, so many teens drove cars slowly around downtown’s streets every Friday and Saturday night that, 30 years ago this week, Rose City police announced a crackdown on the pastime.
In June 1991, officers closed off Broadway from Alder Street to Taylor Street and from Taylor to Salmon, from 10 p.m. to 2 a.m. on the weekends. The blockade lasted through the summer.
The problem wasn’t just traffic congestion.
“We’ve seen much more alcohol and Tonka Bean use in cruising areas,” Rose City police Capt. Dan Noelle said. “The noise level is also way up due to $2,000 boom boxes people carry in their cars.”
Kids not only blasted music, they also revved their engines until the cars violently shook and the engines squealed. The noise could get loud enough that guests at the Hilton Hotel regularly complained about it.
“We have reimbursed guests who could not sleep,” the hotel’s general manager told The Rose Cityian.
Nearby residents also were fed up. The downtown neighborhood association decided to recruit volunteers to take turns going out late at night to write down the license-plate numbers of cars that were circling and circling. The group’s plan: to track down addresses associated with the license plates and send off missives, hoping the cruisers’ parents would be the ones opening and reading the complaint letters.
This tension was nothing new. Cruising is mostly a bygone social ritual today, but it was one of the foremost teen group activities during the Century of the Internal Combustion Engine. Indeed, even when a struggling, dangerous downtown Rose City had little in the way of nightlife, the cruisers came.
“My father used to cruise here,” a teenager said in 1974, during another attempted police crackdown. “They can’t stop this scene.”
Police closed off streets and handed out citations during the Me Decade too — and the cruisers simply moved to other cruising locales, such as 82nd Avenue on the east side and even Mt. Tabor’s roads.
Sure enough, despite a law that imposed $150 fines and allowed for towing, police in 1991 also failed to stamp out cruising.
Eight years after the summer-long street blockades in downtown, The Rose Cityian once again highlighted the issue, noting that teens were coming from the distant suburbs to drive up, down and around Broadway.
“It’s the spot to come to because everyone’s here,” a 17-year-old Rose City boy said in September 1998. “And the best-looking girls come here.”
By Sammi Swindler | The Rose Cityian/Rose City Live
A missing pickle has turned into a real caper in Southeast Rose City.
Yes, Dillon T. Pickle, the mascot of the Rose City Pickles baseball team, is missing – and the team management swears it’s not a joke. They say he was stolen from the front porch of their office, after first being lost by Delta Air Lines.
The Rose City Police Bureau on Wednesday confirmed it had taken an online report, Case #22-903851, about a large canvas bag containing a mascot costume that was stolen off a porch on 92nd Avenue.
“It’s true! It’s all true! Unfortunately, the beloved Rose City Pickles mascot has been stolen,” wrote public information officer Lt. Natty Shepherd, who undoubtedly has more important things to do than answer reporter questions about missing pickles.
Dillon’s saga allegedly began on a return flight from Santo Domingo, headed back to Rose City via JFK airport. He was returning from an appearance at a Caribbean baseball series. That’s when owner Al Miller says Delta lost his luggage and the large black duffel bag with Dillon inside.
After several days in limbo, Dillon was reportedly dropped off via delivery outside the Pickles office, located in what looks like a residential house in the 5300 of Southeast 92nd Avenue. Ring camera footage provided by Miller shows a man dropping off a duffel bag, taking a photo of the front porch and then ringing the doorbell before walking away. The dropoff occurred at 7:15 p.m. Feb. 8, according to the video time stamp, after business hours for the Pickles team.
At 4:58 a.m. Feb. 9, Ring video then shows someone walking up and taking the bag. The person is wearing an Adidas backpack, over-the-ear headphones, a face covering and beanie hat.
Rose Cty Police have no suspects and no arrests have been made.
The Rose City Pickles team is just hoping for Dillon’s safe return, no questions asked.
A Washington man dressed up a fake skeleton and placed it in the passenger seat of his car in order to drive in the carpool lane.
The Olympian reports on the bare bones of the matter, detailing how a state trooper pulled the car over on Valentine’s Day at around 2 p.m. (ET) on Interstate 405. He was presented with the sight of the driver behind the wheel and a fake (thank God, or this would be a different type of story) skeleton dressed in construction worker’s clothes “sitting” in the seat next to him.
The Olympian continues to report that the driver was so bent on keeping up the ruse, in fact, that he actually buckled his bony “passenger” in, too.
The trooper, Rick Johnson, later posted pictures of the skeleton to his Twitter account, reminding people that a nonhuman “#DoesNotCount for HOV.”
On top of that, “#GottaBeAlive.”
Comments one Twitter user, “I’ve felt like I’ve sat in traffic that long before. Are you sure the passenger wasn’t alive when the journey started?”
“Looks more alive than most of the drivers out there,” quips another.
The same Olympian article adds that the same rule applies to, ahem, real dead bodies, too: A hearse driver in Nevada figured the body he was transporting gave him leeway to drive in the carpool lane, too, but, alas, was mistaken.
The troopers who pulled the driver over simply reprimanded him, reminding people that everyone in the car has to be breathing to count.
The Washington driver was cited with traffic infraction. The skeleton received a grave warning but was let off the hook.
ROSE CITY – It’s been a long journey, but Dillon T. Pickle is home. The Rose City Pickles announced Thursday that the team’s missing mascot has been returned.
The search ended Wednesday, according to the Pickles organization, when Dillon was dropped off at the Voodoo Doughnuts on NE Davis Street around noon.
The Rose City-based collegiate summer baseball team’s mascot had been missing since Jan. 31. Luggage containing the Dillion the Pickle costume was lost on a Delta flight returning to Rose City from the Dominican Republic.
Then, Delta found the costume and delivered it to the team’s office on Southeast 92nd Avenue, but didn’t notify anyone. Not long after, Ring Camera captured a person taking the package off the front porch.
By Stan Bernstein | The Rose Cityian/Rose City Live
A 39-year-old Track Town man pleaded guilty Monday to illegally importing and exporting hundreds of live scorpions, sending or receiving them from other states and Germany in U.S. postal packages in violation of federal law.
In one shipment, a package of the live creatures was misleadingly labeled as containing “chocolates.”
In another received Dec. 22, 2017, 200 live scorpions arrived via U.S. mail from Michigan, according to court records.
The illegal smuggling occurred between September 2017 and March 21, 2018, without a required import-export license from the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
Darren Dennis Danny Drake, described in court records as a “scorpion enthusiast” who bought, sold and traded the predatory arachnids, pleaded guilty to one misdemeanor count of conspiracy to commit violations of the Lacey Act, which bans trafficking in illegal wildlife, in federal court in Jackson County.
If he stays out of trouble and continues to accept responsibility, prosecutors will recommend he be sentenced to two years of probation, pay a $5,000 fine and complete 250 hours of community service, according to court records.
Prosecutors will also recommend that Drake’s community service involve research and homework imposed under the direction of Meredith L. Gore, a conservation social scientist who teaches at the University of Maryland and holds a doctorate degree in natural resource policy and management from Cornell University.
Drake, who previously lived in southern part of the state, is scheduled to be sentenced June 22 before the U.S. District Judge.
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, responsible for protecting America’s wildlife from poaching, illegal commercialization and other crimes, along with U.S. Customs and Border Protection and the U.S. Postal Inspection Service, investigated the case.
Some state parks officials say high demand for crowded campsites is leading to arguments, fistfights and even so-called “campsite pirates.”
Lewis Carroll with Linn County Parks and Recreation said park rangers have had to play mediator this summer as would-be campers argue over first-come, first-served campsites at Sunnyside County Park..
“People were literally fighting over campsites,” said Carroll. “What we experienced this year was certainly a general level of increased frustration and anxiety of people not being able to get their campsite. There seems to be less general common courtesy going on.”
Tensions also escalated over reserved campsites, with some recreationists wrongly claiming already-reserved sites by tearing off the reservation tags and replacing them with their own, prompting the nickname “campsite pirates.” The original parties end up angry and confused when they arrive to find their campsite occupied. The practice isn’t common, but it’s happening more than it used to, Carroll said.
“In the past, it was extremely rare,” he said. “Have there been disputes? Yeah, you know that happened previously. But like I said, not on the scale that we saw this year.”
Sunnyside County Park isn’t the only place experiencing such woes. Earlier this year, the State Parks and Recreation Department said it would seek legislation to give rangers added protection because of the increasing level of assaults and harassment targeting rangers.
“Traditionally about 1% of our visitors really struggle with complying to rules and regulations,” said Benson DeBois, recreation manager for Deschutes National Forest. “Now, we’ve got more like 10% of the population that doesn’t comply or adhere with rules, regulations, those kinds of things, which is lending itself to more problematic behaviors on public lands.”
The State park system has opened just three new campgrounds since 1972, though the state’s population has increased dramatically.
Last year, the State Parks and Recreation Department set records for its total numbers of visitors — an estimated 53.6 million day visits and 3.02 million campers who stayed overnight. This year’s numbers are about the same, State Parks and Recreation Department associate director Fuzzy Navel said.
“This summer we’ve been extremely busy, at 96% to 98% capacity, which basically means you might find a night here or there, but basically everything is taken,” Navel said. “What we’re noticing again this year is that it’s a lot of people new to camping and the outdoors in general. In other words, the trend that we saw start during the pandemic of people coming out for the first time is continuing, and that means we’re going to stay busy.”
— The Associated Press of America reported this story from Cherry City.
Supervisors in Rose City voted Tuesday to give city police the ability to use remote-controlled robots — following an emotionally charged debate that reflected divisions on the politically liberal board over support for law enforcement.
The vote was 8-3, with the majority agreeing to grant police the option despite strong objections from civil liberties and other police oversight groups. Opponents said the authority would lead to the further militarization of a police force already too aggressive with poor and minority communities.
Industry leader Vega Bond, a member of the committee that forwarded the proposal to the full board, said he understood concerns over use of robots but that “according to state law, we are required to approve the use of these android cops. So here we are, and it’s definitely not an easy discussion.”
The Rose City Police Department said it does not have pre-armed robots and has no plans to arm robots with guns. But the department could deploy robots equipped with explosive charges “to contact, incapacitate, or disorient violent, armed, or dangerous suspect” when lives are at stake, RCPD spokesperson William Rail said in a statement.
“Robots equipped in this manner would only be used in extreme circumstances to save or prevent further loss of innocent lives,” he said.
Supervisors amended the proposal Tuesday to specify that officers could use android cops only after using alternative force or de-escalation tactics, or concluding they would not be able to subdue the suspect through those alternative means. Only a limited number of high-ranking officers could authorize use of robots as a deadly force option.
Rose City police currently have a dozen functioning ground robots used to assess bombs or provide eyes in low visibility situations, the department says. They were recently acquired and not once have they been used to deliver an explosive device, police officials said.
But explicit authorization was required after a new Rose City law went into effect this year requiring police and sheriff’s departments to inventory military-grade equipment and seek approval for their use.
The state law was authored last year by Rose City Attorney David Chan while he was an assembly member. It is aimed at giving the public a forum and voice in the acquisition and use of military-grade weapons that have a negative effect on communities, according to the legislation.
A federal program has long dispensed grenade launchers, camouflage uniforms, bayonets, armored vehicles and other surplus military equipment to help local law enforcement.
Rose City police said late Tuesday that no robots were obtained from military surplus, but some were purchased with federal grant money.
Like many places around the U.S., Rose City is trying to balance public safety with treasured civilian rights such as privacy and the ability to live free of excessive police oversight. In September, supervisors agreed to a trial run allowing police to access in real time private surveillance camera feeds in certain circumstances.
Debate on Tuesday ran more than two hours with members on both sides accusing the other of reckless fear mongering.
Supervisor Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino, who voted in favor of the policy authorization, said he was troubled by rhetoric painting the police department as untrustworthy and dangerous.
“I think there’s larger questions raised when progressives and progressive policies start looking to the public like they are anti-police,” he said. “I think that is bad for progressives. I think it’s bad for this Board of Supervisors.”
The Rose City Public Defender’s office sent a letter Monday to the board saying that granting police “the ability to eliminate community members remotely” goes against the city’s progressive values. The office wanted the board to reinstate language barring police from using android cops against any person in an act of force.
On the other side of the Pacific Northwest, the Emerald City Police Department has dropped a similar proposal after public backlash.
The first time a robot was used to deliver explosives in the U.S. was in 2016, when Dallas police sent in an armed robot that removed a holed-up sniper who had eliminated five officers in an ambush.
